In passenger transit vehicles, such as airplanes, ships, trains, and automobiles, food service items are often provided for passengers and crew, including serving dishes, flatware, and stemware, for example. In most instances, these service items must be secured within the vessel when not in use for the safety of crew and passengers and to prevent breakage of the service items, yet must be accessible to crew members and passengers for use during transit. Accordingly, well-designed storage solutions for each type of service item are desired.
Stemware, in particular, presents a unique storage challenge in passenger transit. Items of stemware are generally not amenable to stacking or nested storage, like most flatware and serving dishes. Furthermore, a single item of stemware generally has numerous components, including a base, a stem, and a bowl, that all may be fragile. Still further, numerous types of stemware may all be stored together (e.g., red wine glasses, white wine glasses, champagne flutes), each having its own base, stem, and/or bowl dimensions.
Accordingly, the inventors of this disclosure have recognized the need for various apparatus to accommodate the shape and size variations between different types of stemware.